Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NIGERIA IS A FAILED COUNTRY

Professor Harrow,

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." 

(King James Version)

In spite of the accumulated evidence and the mile long commentaries and indictments by Nigerian commentators such as Wole Soyinka ( lastly on BBC Hardtalk) I find myself unqualified to pass the last judgment  on Nigeria or Somalia or Iraq or any other corrupt state  of the past , present or future, but I feel  that Johnny Cochran's words must apply here: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit"– that is, if all the criteria that  by popular  definition would qualify  any state to be classified as a failed state do not fit the Federal Republic of Nigeria, then the country must be acquitted of such a charge.

You keep on excusing the part on behalf of the whole, as if I am not familiar with the saying that "One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch "

Empires that were once larger than Nigeria have been known to have disintegrated and are now but a shadow of their former existence, e.g. the once mighty Persian Empire which is now truncated and has now shrunk to the size of the Islamic republic of Iran   The Mali Empire, the Holy Roman Empire which has since resurrected and is pushing on under a new name, The European Union and of course the greatest Empire of all, The British Empire now known as The Commonwealth of Nations.

Mood I'm in just now having just re-read the first part of the Torah Portion Parshat Bechukotai (Vayikra/Leviticus Chapter 26 verse 3 to Chapter 26 verse 46with some fear and trembling, listening to the Almighty threatening  the ancient Israelites, I can gladly confirm that according to the known mundane criteria that qualifies a state for a "Failed State" status, Israel is far from that and here again I do not and would not mistake Nigeria for the Holy land.

 According to your estimation, there is some political motivation - (and some disdain)   by which the term "failed state "can be indiscriminately applied, according to how it fits the purpose or purposes of the name caller. You gave the example of Somalia.  According to your understanding there probably does not exist any failed state, a failed state has never existed and   so long as the sun rises tomorrow, will probably never exist.  So what nomenclature would you like to generously apply - to replace the concept of failure when the machinery of a state apparatus does not work or dies?  We have witnessed the progression of that terminology from underdeveloped country to developing country, from Foreign aid assistance to cooperation partnerships.  So, Professor Wordsmith, from above or below what generous appellation would you now like to apply to Mother Nigeria?  I can imagine that it will be the kind of word that will not render you a persona non Grata in Nigeria...

I am also looking forward with great expectations as to what could be the maverick Professor Moses Ochonu's take on the whole issue, being fully cognizant of the fact that he is as Nigerian as the Dean of Nigerian history professors, Professor Toyin Falola the Bobapitan of Ibadan land and that with these two gentlemen their patriotic emotions won't tip the scales away from impartial objectivity when they commit their critiques to paper. I'm sure that the question of leadership and some basic structural problems will feature in their analyses. (I'm sick and tired of encountering the expression "structural racism" in many discussions in our Sweden) Of course I would love to hear  Nigeria's  Minister of Finance  Ngozi  Okonjo- Iweala  pontificating a little as she comes to the rescue of  Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan – as right now  President Goodluck  is the good guy,  the commander-in Chief  and not the commander-in-thief  who is leading  Nigeria against the forces of evil and Boko Haram.  For balance on the economic aspect of the unfailing/ never failing state, I should like to hear Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi weighing in on the matter.

 There's Thomas Edison who once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." And there's the bard's, the songbird's famous quip "there's no success as failure and failure's no success at all

Sin-cerely,

 Cornelius

We Sweden

On Saturday, 17 May 2014 15:43:15 UTC+2, Kenneth Harrow wrote:

i don't think it is all or nothing, not a binary, not an absolute condition. there are parts of cities, like detroit, where you won't want to go. is detroit a failed city? it is actually in bankruptcy. there are parts of syria where it is safe to go, but the country is a mess. iraq is a mess, but the kurdish region thrives.
i can't speak with authority on it, but who would characterize lagos as a failed city? it has problems, but there are much worse cities, much more dangerous cities, like jo'burg at night, say, or many s african cities. yet s africa is not a "failed state."
the center certainly holds in ife, in ibadan. but not maidugari.
i don't want to deny all the problems that are cited concerning nigeria, but the notion that this is a singular situation strikes me as inadequate; and the notion that cuba has everything right is really, actually, a sad joke as well.
anyway,...
another thought, a question. when i asked a friend in senegal about the inadequacies of the govt, during the days of wade, he stated, you should look at the secondary levels of government or business, not just the leadership, to ask about people who set about doing their jobs as best they can.
that is true.
at the university there were wonderful teachers, even if there were also poor ones who sought to earn the living outside their posts. there were good people in lots of places, especially in the leadership of the history dept, an outstanding model. it would be wrong to tar the entire edifice with the brush that failed to distinguish the good from the bad. there are amazingly wonderful artists, musicians, performers, and filmmakers in nigeria. the failed state hasn't generated failure everywhere. we should focus on the points needing critique, and not give up on the whole

ken

On 5/17/14 12:31 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

 no hot without cold no heaven without hell no black without white no rich without poor   no hot without cold no heaven without hell no black without white no rich without poor  its only bad news and nothing smells better than success  even under the armpits so hypocritical or rhetorical or not any day now hand grenades and molotov cocktails can be thrown bombs can go off in any shopping mall in any major city anywhere in nigeria and when people are afraid to go shopping and start avoiding crowds or crossing bridges then  you know that unlike life in a successful state where citizen joe can take out some life insurance premiums or enjoy some obama-type of care  a failed state is a failed state is a failed state is a state in which three hundred daughters of god can be kidnapped and sold into slavery  or forced marriages  in a neighbouring slaver  state or in the motherland  in which  poverty reigns in the midst of dollar millionaires in which life is not safe in which ceaseless sex and endless death and yet  the population doubles every fifty years in which the educational system is in ruins in which the rich leave their  poor country behind  and fly over seas to poland and germany to obtain  cheap standard medical treatment in which corruption the giving and taking of bribes is the order of the day in which the poor man is trampled under the boots of the law and the rich man can say to the poor man " I'm right  you're dead" in which only the threat of war against any part that wants to secede holds the whole system  together otherwise it's things fall apart the centre cannot hold in which showcase national conferences solve nothing because they do not discuss even the most basic issue about the  value of each human life  or a more just  distribution of the wealth in which every single day billions of dollars disappear from the state treasury into the pockets of the democratically elected lootocracy and there's nothing that citizen joe can do about it alone or in concert with others so he shrugs his shoulders and praying for divine retribution and heavenly rewards for all his sufferings here on earth and  in the failed state in the estate of mind he is in he says "God dae!"

On Friday, 16 May 2014 22:05:34 UTC+2, Kenneth Harrow wrote:

dear all
the phrase "failed state" is largely, and increasingly, rhetorical.
to make the point, one picks this state to compare nigeria to, another picks that state: cuba, somalia, etc.
each state is actually different, and it is not very difficult to find many many states that have only partial control over their national territory. how much does cameroon actually control its northern regions? its northern borders? how much control does the c.a.r. have over its territory, or chad, or southern sudan etc. does the u.s. control its cowboy nutcases who don't pay taxes, and thumb their noses at the tax collectors? does the soviet union control all of chechnia? does china its uighars?
and what does control really mean?

so, when i read this morning that jonathan couldn't travel up north because the "security," i.e., the army, couldn't guarantee his safety, i was somewhat amazed, till i read that the army leaders' graft carries down to the failure to equip the army adequately to do its job, not to mention the uncertainties of their loyalties.
if a failed state is one that fails to prevent bombings in its own territories, like the bombs in abuja, then the u.s. is a failed state because of oklahoma city, or 9/11.

we need a stronger definition of failed state, or better still, drop the designation since it is not, and has never been, an actually useful political term, but rather an ideological term where one power decides to use it so as to discredit its opponents. i am thinking that when the islamic courts govt gained ascendancy in somalia, and the u.s. decided it was unacceptable and paid ethiopia to otherthrow it, the rationale was that somalia was a failed state--a failure the u.s. guaranteed until it could place its own favored faction in power.

there is something else going on with this pervasive fear attached to the "failed state," something that we need the strong political science voices to elucidate.
moses?
ken
 

On 5/16/14 12:28 PM, Alfred Zack-Williams wrote:

Segun,

In agreeing with Gloria, I also identify a fundamental feature of a failed state: its inability to protect, defend its citizenry and to provide basic welfare. In short absence of social citizenship.

Zack

Sent from my iPhone

On 9 May 2014, at 01:59, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdu...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is cut and dry; right out it the 60s context of struggle against whitey. Not sure the author of the classic SOUL ON ICE will own up to this UN 2014 the century of the middle ground.
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On May 9, 2014 12:43 AM, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)"<emea...@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:

You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.



 Eldridge Cleaver

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora


________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Prof. Segun Ogungbemi [segun...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 3:16 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NIGERIA IS A FAILED COUNTRY

Gloria,
I agree with you that it is not the debts of a nation like Nigeria that makes her a failed State. What makes some people to view Nigeria a failed State is the collapse of law and order, the inability of the political leaders to turn the wealth of the nation into prosperity, the chaotic condition of infrastructure, devaluation of educational values, insecurity among others.
America and Japan have impressive infrastructure, poverty is drastically reduced, their education sector is properly enhanced with adequate funding, the security network gives their people confidence and there is law and order. Americans and Japanese are very proud of their countries. Nigerians can,  if the kind of development found in the US or Japan is experienced here. But when there is no collective or national interest there cannot be pride of being a Nigerian. Consider the number of Nigerians today who win the US or Japan is experienced here. But when there is no collective or national interest there cannot be pride of being a Nigerian. Consider the number of Nigerians today who will be happy to live and work in the US because of frustration.
Nigeria currency was stronger than the US dollars in the 70s to partly early  80s when we were Federal Government scholars in the US. But today the naira is between 160 and 170 to the dollar.
How do you assess this kind of scenario without saying that Nigeria is retrogressive? If the people say that Nigeria is a failed State honestly they are not far from stating the obvious.
We should be honest enough to accept our failure as a nation and be determined to change our ugly side of the coin. And we can.




Prof. Segun Ogungbemi
Department of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria.
+08033041371,08024670952
segun...@gmail.com<mailto:seguno2013@gmail.com>

On May 8, 2014, at 12:01 AM, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)"<emea...@mail.ccsu.edu<mailto:emea...@mail.ccsu.edu>> wrote:

You would think that  the US, a country that is in debt to the tune of  17 trillion dollars, or
the Eurozone,  owing half of that,  would call themselves failed countries but
you don't hear that kind of language from their citizens or analysts.

Japan has a debt to GDP  ratio of over 200%. and a nuclear disaster that is unprecedented.
Nobody uses that kind of language in referring to that country. Instead
Mr Abe Shinzo, the prime minister is globe trotting and basking in the glory of
Japanese nationalism. He is not wallowing in the swamp of self pity.

China may be the #1 in the world right now but  in some areas you need a mask
To go outdoors- given the high rate of pollution.

Columbia and Mexico have been having a really hard time fighting the drug lords.
Decapitated bodies line the streets of certain towns and villages-from time to time, but
the people and  government fight on. Living in the 21st century has its challenges.

Boko Haram is comprised of   bandits and assassins,
misogynists, religious zealots,  ransom seekers, the dispossessed, mercenaries and refugees
from Libya, Chad and Mali, the rivals of Ahlul Sunna -   and much more-
and these categories are not exhaustive or  mutually
exclusive. The movement also has admirers, members  and supporters of the Taliban, Al-Qaida, al-Shabaab
and AQIM. No small thing.

These are the moments for level headed action, encouragement and courage, not despair,
cowardice and taunts.

Gloria Emeagwali


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 5:40 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NIGERIA IS A FAILED COUNTRY

dear all
better not to think of this situation as being unique to nigeria
how many children were kidnapped, turned into sex slaves or child soldiers, for the lord's resistance army. also run by a religious crackpot.
and how many thousands and thousands of children were turned, also, into sex slaves or child soldiers in liberia and sierra leone, during their wars, in the drc, and actually its neighboring states, also during the fighting there? i don't know enough about the fighting in other places, like angola, sudan, or elsewhere, but i bet children were also impressed into the armies, and that girls were not spared.
what happened in nigeria is truly abominable, but not really unique.
what is to be done? i won't make big pronouncements, except to say that i do not believe the nation-state is the ideal political structure of our times. we are set one against the other as "citizens" of states willing to do anything to maintain power, and, increasingly, incapable of securing the safety of its own citizens.
i wish we'd come to agreements, more and more, about how to end abhorrent actions like this abduction and enslavement of these poor girls; adopt them as our own, and commit together to fighting groups that imagine they are justified by committing atrocities
ken
On 5/7/14 5:23 PM, John Mbaku wrote:
This is an unfair and perhaps, ill-informed, characterization of Nigeria and its problems with governance and economic growth and development. Even, highly developed countries with robust and matured institutions are struggling with radical religious groups, which are determined to destroy both people and property. It is true that it is the constitutional duty of a government to protect its citizens and Nigeria is no exception. However, any government, like that of Goodluck Jonathan, that reaches out to others (including governments) to seek assistance in resolving domestic problems, especially those that involve transnational terrorism, should not be mocked.

The most important and critical issue at the moment is the safety and immediate release of these children. This should be the pre-occupation of not only Nigerians and their leaders, but that of all human beings. To use this unfortunate situation as a foundation from which to criticize Nigeria's government for its supposed incompetence is cruel, insensitive, and a disservice to the parents of these missing children.

There is no justification for this type of insensitivity!



On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com<mailto:alukome@gmail.com>> wrote:


William Bangura:

I do not blame you for this gratuitous diatribe against our Nigeria.  The Yoruba say that when the rain falls, both pigeons and chickens are forced to huddle together.  There is this other (probably more apt) Yoruba idiom of smaller reverses taking advantage of a person when felled (socially?  medically?  economically?)  by giant ones....but let us skip that.

And there you have it.


Bolaji Aluko

On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 1:48 PM, william bangura <william....@gmail.com<mailto:william....@gmail.com>> wrote:
Being a Pan Africanist I empathize with the families whose daughters have been kidnapped by the Boko Haram whose actions are dastardly and should be condemned by all.
Though most Nigerians love to portray their country as the African "super-power" because of her population and natural resources, it is a failed state which can neither provide security for her citizens nor afford them vertical economic advancement.
After achieving independence in 1960 Nigeria became a republic in 1963. It is inexcusable that with her petro-dollars<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27187255>  she cannot institute intelligence and security forces to safeguard her citizens and her borders.
There have been aspersions thrown in this forum at the colonialists and imperialists for the problems of the continent, but yesterday President Goodluck Jonathan of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was on his hands and knees crawling<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27280187>  to the British and the Americans to liberate those poor girls who did not demand to be born or reside in a feckless and corrupt country.

William Bangura
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